Pat Robertson shows again why the Christian Right is such a laughingstock

The Isrealis are in the process of dismantling their settlements this very moment. However, at the time the settlements were established, they had been attacked from all sides, many Israelis died, they fought back very hard & ultimately won the war. The settlements were put in place as a defense against future attacks. The dismantling of them is part of the "Road Map to Peace."

Whoa, wait a second. We gave China favored nation status. We treat the royal family of Saudi Arabia as if they were the royal family of America (which there is a good argument that they are).You don't have to come out and say, "We support China's abuse of human rights" to be supportive of it.If someone were to go on a shooting rampage in a mall and gave them a discount shoppers card, you could argue that we are supporting their shooting rampage.

Health insurance & the health care "delivery system" in this country needs a complete overhaul. What I said about the emergency room referred to it being the only place for the poor to go. Not the fact that they're poor, therefore, they are less than deserving of medical care. Having said that though, we should come up with better ways of delivering medical treatment & care to everyone.

Wow, talk about the blind leading the blind right off a cliff... Um, I don't think that stock options of mega-rich CEOs count as "earned income" in many people's books. Most of this corp. privateers enjoy enormous salaries and extreme stock incentives, then sit back and watch as the company plummets into bankruptcy.Also, there is an entire class of people in this country who survive on family money. They don't "earn" anything. They live off the interest that their war profiteer ancestors left for them.As for this Would those be the self same pension funds that the aforementioned corporate raiders plunder as they destroy the companies and fatten their pocket books? When you say the middle class "owns" the vast majority of the wealth, the implication behind ownership is that they would be able to do something with the money at some point. The money is not in their hands, they don't control it, they don't own it.

I applaud this, I think it's awome. I hope both sides find peace. Many of the settlements were/are being established long after the six day war. As for the buffer zone arguments, how come most of these settlements are full of nice houses and neighborhoods that look like a small town in New Jersey or something?If it smells like a landgrab, looks like a landgrab, it's probably a landgrab.It dosn't help anything when the Isrealies actually belive the land is theirs by divine fiat. Not that the muslems are any better, the tragic irony is that the Jews and the muslems share the same religious history. They BOTH belive god gave 'em the land.

And taking a hostile stance against the most populous nation on Earth, especially in light of its nuclear status, is committing diplomatic suicide, not to mention putting this country's security in jeopardy. We stand a much better chance of influencing China over time if their economy is dependent on exports to the USA.As for the royal family of Saudi Arabia, they really the ONLY friends we have in the region. They have enormous difficulties battling Islamic fundamentalism within their kingdom. Better we should work them than against them, too.

This is false Emergency rooms are required to treat emergencies. There are a whole host of deadly, allbeit not immediately life threatening, diseases that hospitals will elect not to treat.I've never heard of anyone going to an emergency room with a brain tumor and getting brain surgery for free right then and there.Don't see a lot of homeless people on Chemo.And, by the way, one of the BIGGEST problems with the health care system is people going to the Emergency room (very expensive) for things like hang nails and head colds.edit- spellingThis message has been edited by Nuggin, 08-25-2005 02:58 PM

Your sniffer needs an adjustment, it's off a touch. The settlements were always about the safety & security of Israel. You're awfully quick to forget & dismiss the numerous times they've been attacked by their neighbors. And they are still under attack by terrorists on a daily basis.

No sir, you must be treated for illness at community hospitals, regardless of ones ability to pay.

You refered to his positions in a very negative way... I assume you are now taking that back?

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

Hopstials cannot refuse you treatment. My mom is a nurse.Now YOU can refuse treatment.

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No.Some of his views I agree with. Most, I do not.

Tal, after suggesting that Dean was not smart, passionate, or honest, you were asked the following: Your list was a direct answer to that question. You put that list right beneath that exact quote. Thus you must think those ideas are not smart, passionate, or honest and implicate Dean as being such a person.If not then that list made no sense as an answer.So when I confront you with pieces of that list that you end up actually accepting you now say: Then what was the point of the list? Sounds like someone other than Dean is lacking smarts, or honesty... I'll give you passion though.

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

Please answer the questions in Message 149

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

You were asked to provide evidence of Dean's idea's being "not smart, not passionate or not honest" You gave a long list. I'm going to refute them one at a time.I'm completely skipping the "passionate and honest" arguement since we have no real way of testing that. I assume that Dean believes all these things and supports them passionately.So, I'm only going to address how smart the idea is. We are a country governed by rule of law. Therefore everyone, even a terrorist, faces that rule of law through the same process. To have one legal system for one class of people and a different legal system for a different class or people is to have no real legal system at all. The war on drugs has been a war against Suppliers and Users. We've spent billions of dollars and have imprisoned an entire generation of Americans. And the end result -- More drugs, purer drugs, cheaper drugs.Obviously the current system is not working. The suggestion that we try to reduce demand through addiction treatment and thereby shut down the engine that is the drug trade is not a bad suggestion at all. If we had let the UN handle the Iraw situation then thousands of American service men and women would still be alive. Tens of thousands would still have arms and legs. And out debt wouldn't have ballooned by billions and billions of dollars.Additionally, it would have been proven that Iraq didn't have WMD.Seems like the smart thing to me.The other option is going in gung-ho with no plan on how to handle the aftermath of the war and the quagmire of a conflict without a set goal. You think this is a dumb suggestion, yet this is exactly what we're involved in right now.I have no problem with us doing nation-building, I just think you build better with a hammer than a grenade. I don't understand why this in on your list. Are you suggesting that NAFTA is complete and therefore doesn't need changes? Or are you saying that NAFTA is horrible and shouldn't have been put in in the first place. Again, how is having standards and enforcing them not smart (or passionate or honest). The Right is constantly complaining about jobs going overseas to countries where the pay pennies on the dollar. Well, globalized workers rights would help halt that flow. We only have a few tools to use on China. We aren't going to threaten them into compliance. We aren't going to shame them into compliance. That leaves trade. The lifestyle of people in Wyoming is very different that the lifestyle or people living in NYC. It's much more likely that someone in Wyoming is going to need a rifle for hunting than someone in NYC. Right now, any maniac can go to a gun show and buy anything they want. If you want to keep guns out of the hands of the criminally insane, checking to see who the criminally insane are is a pretty good start. This isn't really something Dean said, it's the result of his policies.Leading Dems distance themselves from divisive gun debate. (Oct 2003)
Supports assault weapons ban and Brady bill. (Apr 2003)
Get guns off the national radar screen: no new federal laws. (Nov 2002) [/qs]It's true than many Dems don't agree with Dean's possitions on gun control.There is an appartent conflict between supporting assault weapons ban and suggesting that we not have more federal gun laws, however that gives a false impression. What's happening there is that Dean is supporting continuing the assualt weapons ban, that's not a new gun law, it's a continuation of an existing one. Again, I don't understand what you are trying to say with this statement. Is there a typo? Could you clarify? While I personally don't agree with this possition, it does have some merit.I'm in Los Angeles, and the immigrant problem is as bad here as it as anywhere.We can't simply round up and deport all the illegals even if we wanted to. First, who would do it, the IS is way understaffed. Second, the effects on the economy (short term) would be disasterous. Taking that much labor out of the labor pool would raise wages, but many of the tasks the illegals are doing involve time sensitive products (fruit). The labor disappears, the fruit rots.The US needs to pick a policy and stick to it. If we are going to enforce the law, then fine. If we aren't, then the law needs to be changed. Very few jobs actually pay minimum wage, but those workers who are making min. are really struggling to get by. Additionally, they are the people who will spend the money the most. Someone making 14k a year who gets bumped up with 16k a year is still going to spend every penny of it in the marketplace. I'm not exactly sure what your point is here. That he should suck it up and pay the $76 fee? What was the circumstances of his appeal? What the tax paid late? Are you saying that his fiscally conservative views are "not smart". What's your point?